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THE    CONTINENTAL 

INSURANCE    COMPANY 

OF     NEW     YORK 

1853-I905 


CONTINENTAL    BUILDING 

44-48    CEDAR    STREET,    NEW    YORK 

ERECTE  D    I  894 


THE  CONTINENTAL 

INSURANCE    COMPANY 

OF   NEW    YORK 
1853—1905 

A  HISTORICAL  SKETCH 

COMPILED 
BY 

WILLIAM  LORING  ANDREWS 

A    DIRECTOR   OF    THE    COMPANY 


••NEW  YORK 
THE  CONTINENTAL  INSURANCE  COMPANY 
M   C   M   V   I 


Copyright,  1906,  by 

The  Continental  Insurance  Company 

OF  New  York 


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LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Continental  Building,    ....     Facing  title 
44-48  Cedar  Street,  New  York. 

Continental  Building, 4 

Court  and  Montague  Streets,  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

Portrait  OF  William  V.  Brady,   ....     13 

President,  1853-1857. 

Portrait  of  George  T.  Hope,  ....  19 

President,  1857-1885. 

Portrait  of  Hiram  H.  Lamport,      ...     25 
President,  1885- 1889. 

Portrait  of  Francis  C.  Moore,   ....     29 

President,  1889- 1903. 

Portrait  of  Henry  Evans, 37 

President,  1903 . 

Continental  Building, 45 

100  Broadway,  New  York. 

Continental  Building, 55 

158  Montague  Street,  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

vii 


M116898 


A 

HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE   COMPANY 
SINCE  ITS  FOUNDATION 


CONTINENTAL      BUILDING 

COURT    AND    MONTAGUE    STREETS,    BROOKLYN 

ERECTED    1874 


m^^  Tt 


REDUCED  FAC-SIMILE  OF  POLICY  HEADING  USED  IN  1865 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  COMPANY 
SINCE  ITS  FOUNDATION 

THIS  favored  land  of  ours  is  rich  beyond 
compare  in  all  but  one  particular.  It  is  a 
new  country  that  we  inhabit,  and  an- 
tiquity not  being  a  purchasable  article,  we  must 
perforce  remain  to  the  end  of  the  chapter  one  of 
the  youthful  members  of  the  family  of  nations.  So 
few  comparatively  are  the  years  that  lie  behind  us, 
so  brief  our  history,  that  we  refer  with  a  feeling  of 
ancestral  pride  to  organizations  and  institutions 
founded  prior  to  our  Revolutionary  War,  dub 
them  **  ancient  and  honorable,"  and  treat  them 
with  the  respect  and  veneration  we  render  to  grey 
hairs. 

The  business  of  fire  insurance  falls  distinctly 
within  this  category,  for  a  fire  insurance  company 
was  formed  in  Philadelphia  as  early  as  1752,  Ben- 
jamin Franklin — the  organizer  also,  in  1738  of 
the  first  fire  engine  company — being  one  of  its  ac- 
tive promoters.  This  parent  company  was  followed 

5 


THE   CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE    COMPANY 

by  the  ^'Mutuar'  of  New  York  in  1787,  ^'The 
Insurance  Company  of  North  America/'  of  Phila- 
delphia, which  is  still  in  existence,  founded  in 
1792,  the ''Equitable"  of  Baltimore  in  1794,  and 
the  ''Massachusetts"  of  Boston  in  1795. 
\  Ppjioies  of  insurance  were  obtainable  in  England 
.biijforie'thj?'  time,  but  it  would  appear  that  previous 
.-tG^th«  formation  of  domestic  companies,  fire  loss 
itideriiriity-with  the  merchants  of  New  York,  was, 
to  some  extent,  a  matter  of  brotherly  kindness  and 
obedience  to  the  scriptural  injunction  to  bear  one 
another's  burdens  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  love;  the 
neighbors  of  the  sufferer  by  fire  contributing,  to 
make  good  his  loss,  so  far  as  they  felt  able  and 
inclined — actuated  partly,  no  doubt,  by  a  realiza- 
tion of  the  necessity  of  standing  shoulder  to  shoul- 
der for  mutual  protection  against  a  common  danger. 

The  "Mutual  Assurance  Company  of  the  City  of 
New  York"  was  for  a  number  of  years,  the  only 
insurance  company  in  the  city,  and  it  probably 
sufficed  for  the  needs  of  the  little  town  of  New 
York  of  its  day,  which  contained  only  about  3,400 
houses  and  had  a  population  of  but  24,000.  The 
company's  form  of  policy  was  drawn  up  by  Alex- 
ander Hamilton,  and  it  transacted  both  a  fire  and  a 
marine  insurance  business,  as  all  of  these  companies 
first  in  the  field  appear  to  have  done. 

The  "great "  fire  of  the  2 1 st  of  September,  1 776, 
the  year  that  the  British  troops  took  possession  of 
New  York,  consumed  493  buildings  before  its 
course  was  checked.  Again  in  the  summer  of 
1778  the  fire  fiend  visited  the  city  and  left  fifty 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1853    ^O    I905 

houses  and  stores  in  ruins,  but  the  most  disastrous 
and  alarming  conflagration  New  York  had  yet 
experienced  broke  out  in  the  evening  of  December 
16,  1835.  Six  hundred  and  seventy-four  struc- 
tures and  property  valued  at  $15,000,000  were 
destroyed  in  this  catastrophe,  and  the  principal 
part  of  the  First  Ward,  was  erased  from  the  map 
of  the  city.  The  night  was  bitter  cold  and  a  high 
wind  fanned  the  fire.  Its  march  was  stayed  only 
by  the  blowing  up  of  buildings  that  lay  in  its  path, 
and  by  lack  of  fuel  for  the  flames  to  feed  upon  when 
they  reached  South  Street  and  the  shores  of  the 
East  River.  A  writer  of  the  time  states  that  the 
passengers  in  the  steamboat  coming  down  the 
Hudson  saw  the  flames  from  the  Highlands,  forty- 
five  miles  distant,  and  such  was  the  violence  of  the 
gale  during  the  prevalence  of  the  fire,  that  burning 
embers  were  carried  across  the  East  River  to 
Brooklyn,  and  set  fire  to  the  roof  of  a  house  there, 
which  was,  however,  speedily  extinguished. 

Seventeen  years  subsequent  to  the  great  fire 
of  1835,  and  while  the  memory  of  it  and  of  the 
one  that  occurred  ten  years  later  (July  19,  1845) 
must  have  been  still  vivid  in  the  minds  of  the 
citizens  of  New  York,  a  company  of  men  was  found 
willing  to  embark  upon  the  stormy  sea  of  fire  un- 
derwriting and  engage  in  what  had  proved  itself 
to  be  a  hazardous  business  in  the  extreme,  and 
these  venturesome  men  christened  their  craft  the 
''Continental." 

The  precarious  nature  of  the  fire  insurance  busi- 
ness— the  ''fearful  mortality  of  fire  insurance  cor- 


THE    CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE    COMPANY 

porations" — is  fully  demonstrated  by  the  array  of 
figures  for  the  twenty-six  years  from  1877  to  1902 
inclusive,  presented  by  "The  Chronicle,"  an  in- 
surance journal  of  New  York  City.  These  tables 
show  an  estimated  aggregate  property  loss  in  the 
United  States  during  this  period  of  $3,092,630,- 
171,  and  an  insurance  loss  of  11,828,539,628,  in 
consequence  of  which  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  com- 
panies in  operation  January  i,  1871,  and  organ- 
ized after  that  date,  were  driven  out  of  existence. 
It  required  a  staunch  ship  and  able  seamanship 
to  navigate  such  troubled  waters  as  these. 

By  way  of  addenda  to  the  bewildering  mass  of 
numerals  in  the  foregoing  statement,  it  may  be 
noted  that  the  fire  insurance  written  in  1904,  by 
companies  reporting  to  the  New  York  Insurance 
Department  amounted  to  between  twenty-four 
and  twenty-five  billions  of  dollars,  of  which  the 
Continental's  share  approximated  seven  hundred 
and  seventy-four  million  dollars. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1905,  the  Continental 
had  insurance  in  force  amounting  to  one  billion, 
one  hundred  and  eight  million  dollars — a  vast  sum, 
it  would  seem,  to  be  protected  by  one  company; 
but  it  is  really  an  element  of  safety,  for  scattered 
as  the  liability  is  over  the  entire  United  States, 
and  with  a  comparatively  small  amount  at  risk  in 
each  city  or  town,  there  is  no  danger  of  the  des- 
truction in  any  one  fire  or  conflagration  of  more 
than  an  inconsiderable  proportion  of  the  property 
insured,  while  on   the  other   hand   the  revenue 

8 


OF    NEW    YORK,    1853    TO    I905 

earned  by  the  Company  from  this  great  business 
adds  strength  to  each  individual  policy.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  science  of  fire  underwriting  is 
found  in  the  ''aggregation  of  assets  and  the  scat- 
tering of  liability/' 

THE  story  of  the  organization  of  The  Con- 
tinental Fire  Insurance  Company,  and  of 
the  fortunes  good  and  ill  that  befell  it 
during  the  first  twenty-three  years  of  its  existence, 
is  concisely  narrated  in  a  pamphlet  published  by 
the  Company  in  1876,  and  from  it  many  of  the 
facts,  figures  and  statements  appertaining  to  that 
period  in  its  history  have  been  taken. 

Prior  to  the  great  fire  of  1835  there  were  several 
companies  with  a  capital  of  half  a  million  dollars, 
and  one  with  a  million,  engaged  in  the  business  of 
fire  insurance  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Insurance 
stocks  had  become  a  favorite  investment,  not  only 
with  capitalists,  executors,  and  trustees  of  estates, 
but  also  with  people  of  moderate  means.  To  a 
greater  extent  probably  was  this  the  case  in  our 
sister  town  of  Boston  than  here  with  us,  for  when 
the  conflagration  of  November  9,  1872,  visited 
that  city,  the  number  of  families  impoverished 
through  the  total  extinguishment  of  their  invest- 
ments in  the  stocks  of  fire  insurance  companies, 
attracted  general  attention  and  aroused  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  public. 

The  dividends  paid  by  fire  insurance  companies, 
which  seldom  reached  ten  per  cent,  could  not  have 
been  considered  highly  remunerative  at  a  period 


THE   CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE   COMPANY 

when  the  legal  rate  of  interest  was  seven  per  cent, 
and  this  return  was  also  expected,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  from  real  estate  investments,  and  even  from 
such  gilt-edge  securities  as  State  and  City  stocks 
and  bonds.  The  exemption  of  insurance  stocks 
from  taxation  in  the  hands  of  the  holder  (for  the 
companies  assumed  and  paid  all  taxes)  was  doubt- 
less an  attractive  feature,  and  no  one  seemed  to 
dream  of  the  possibility  that  the  principal  itself 
of  the  investment  might  entirely  shrink  away  in  a 
great  fire  such  as  has  repeatedly  since  those  days 
swept  over  a  city,  and  caused  the  bankruptcy  of 
numerous  insurance  companies  in  a  single  night. 
The  fire  of  1835  bankrupted  all  but  seven  of  the 
New  York  companies,  including  the  one  with  a 
million  dollars  of  capital,  and  all  of  those  with  half 
a  million,  while  the  greater  number  of  the  seven 
companies  which  escaped  insolvency  lost  a  large 
proportion  of  their  assets.  From  the  ruins  of  that 
fire  no  million-dollar  company  arose,  and  but  two 
or  three  of  a  half-million  each.  A  burnt  child 
dreads  the  fire,  and  fire  insurance  stocks  were  no 
longer  regarded  as  proper  security  for  the  invest- 
ment of  trust  funds;  nor  were  stockholders  any 
longer  contented  with  moderate  rates  of  dividend 
from  a  business  shown  to  be  so  precarious.  The 
projection  and  construction  of  the  magnificent 
Croton  water-works,  and  the  introduction  toward 
the  close  of  1842  of  an  abundant  supply  of  water, 
restored  much  of  the  confidence  in  insurance  stocks. 
This  trust  was  destined  soon  to  experience  another 
suspension  in  the  rude  shock  which  it  received  by 

10 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1853    TO    I905 

New  York's  second  great  fire,  that  of  July  19, 
1845,  which  ruined  several  of  her  insurance  com- 
panies, and  impaired  the  capitals  of  nearly  all  the 
others,  including  among  them  those  with  a  capital 
of  $500,000  each. 

In  1848  there  were  in  the  City  of  New  York  but 
seventeen  fire  insurance  companies,  and  their 
united  capitals  barely  reached  four  million  dollars. 
The  citizens  of  the  State  began  to  feel  severely  the 
absence  of  adequate  insurance  protection,  and  this 
condition  of  affairs  suggested  need  of  legislative 
encouragernent  in  order  to  prevent  the  practical 
extinction  of  that  indispensable  protection  to  the 
material  interests  of  the  State  and  especially  so  for 
New  York  City,  where  the  severe  lessons  of  peril 
and  of  loss  had  been  enforced.  The  first  general 
insurance  law  of  the  State  of  New  York  was  passed 
in  1 849,  and  soon  led  to  the  organization  of  several 
companies  having  $200,000  each  (the  minimum 
capital  allowed  for  companies  doing  business  in 
New  York  City,)  and  a  multitude  of  those  town 
and  county  mutuals,  which  have  everywhere,  and 
in  almost  all  cases,  proved  to  be  a  snare  and  a  delu- 
sion to  agricultural  populations;  but  which  hap- 
pily endure  only  for  a  short  season.  Until  the 
year  1852  the  City  of  New  York  had  but  two  com- 
panies with  capitals  in  excess  of  a  quarter  of  a 
million  dollars,  and  the  larger  of  these  reached 
$300,000.  A  number  of  New  York's  most  prom- 
inent merchants,  recognizing  the  claims  of  its  com- 
mercial interests,  and  deriving  their  chief  incentive 
from  its  past  misfortunes,  determined   that  its 


THE  CONTINENTAL  INSURANCE  COMPANY 


citizens  should  have  a  first-class  insurance  com- 
pany, with  a  capital  of  not  less  than  half  a  million 
dollars,  to  be  guided  in  its  operations  by  the  best 
underwriting  experience  obtainable.  Out  of  this 
public  spirit  arose  the  insurance  incorporation 
which  came  to  be  known  as  The  Continental  In- 
surance Company  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

The  first  Board  of  Directors  was  composed  of  the 
following  gentlemen : 

Dan  H.  Arnold 

Charles  F.  Dambmann 

Samuel  D.  Babcock 


Charles  H.  Booth 
E.  H.  T.  Gibson 
Edward  Lambert 
Daniel  Burgess 
Aurelius  B.  Hull 
Hiram  Barney 
Wilson  G.  Hunt 
WilHam  A.  Hall 
Horace  B.  Claflin 
Peleg  Hall 
George  W.  Lane 
James  A.  Edgar 
Wellington  Clapp 
Lycurgus  Edgerton 
A.  Studwell 
Charles  M.  Connolly 
Charles  E.  Beebe 
Abiel  A.  Low 
George  S.  Stephenson 
Lowell  Hollbrook 


David  Lane 
Henry  C.  Bowen 
William  W.  Stone 
Watts  Sherman 
Jonathan  Hunt 
Thomas  Tileston 
Thomas  Smull 
Thomas  Denny 
Jonathan  H.  Ransom 
James  Freeland 
Joseph  Battell 
John  Paine 
Joseph  W.  Patterson 
Charles  Lamson 
John  Caswell 
Simeon  B.  Chittenden 
C.  A.  Avery 
William  M.  Vail 
William  M.  Richards 
George  Griswold 
Sheppard  Gandy 
Robert  H.  McCurdy 
William  V.  Brady 


12 


WILLIAM    V.    BRADY 

PRESIDENT,     1853-1857 


OF    NEW    YORK,    1853    TO    I905 

In  due  course  committees  were  appointed  to  se- 
lect for  the  company  the  required  managerial  tal- 
ent, and  an  office  suitable  for  its  accommodation. 

The  officer  first  chosen  was  its  secretary, 
George  T.  Hope,  who,  although  still  a  young  man, 
had  already  had  large  experience  in  underwriting, 
having  been,  for  more  than  half  his  life,  an  officer 
of  The  Jefferson  Fire  Insurance  Company.  The 
Hon.  William  V.  Brady,  ex-mayor  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  was  elected  president,  which  position 
he  held  until  May,  1857,  when  he  was  succeeded  by 
the  secretary,  Mr.  Hope. 

Books  for  subscription  to  the  stock  were  pub- 
licly opened,  as  required  by  law,  on  the  27th  of 
December,  1852,  and  were  closed  at  the  end  of 
two  hours,  when  it  was  found  that  an  amount 
largely  in  excess  of  that  fixed  upon  for  the  capital 
($500,000)  had  been  subscribed.  The  subscrip- 
tions were  all  paid  in  on  the  3rd  of  January,  1853, 
and  on  the  7th  of  that  month — all  legal  prelimi- 
naries being  completed — the  Continental's  first 
policy  was  issued. 

The  primary  purpose  of  the  stockholders  of  the 
Continental  was  to  provide  a  first-class  company 
for  the  City  of  New  York,  but  it  was  not  their  in- 
tention to  preclude  the  extension  of  its  business 
in  due  process  of  time  to  other  fields  by  means  of 
agencies.  The  company  soon  gained  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  ably  managed,  and  applications  for 
agencies  were  pressed  upon  it.  Its  first  agency 
was  established  during  the  year  1853,  ^^  Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

J5 


THE    CONTINENTAL   INSURANCE    COMPANY 

THE  Steady  forward  march  of  the  Continen- 
tal, in  the  systematic  expansion  of  its 
business,  the  increase  of  its  assets  and  the 
extension  of  its  power  and  influence  as  an  under- 
writing institution  are  shown  in  the  successive 
annual  statements  made  by  the  company  to  the 
Insurance  Department  of  the  State  from  the  com- 
mencement of  its  operations  until  the  year  1871. 
On  the  8th,  9th  and  i  oth  of  October  of  that  year, 
occurred  in  Chicago  that  unprecedented  conflagra- 
tion which  burned  over  five  square  miles  of  the  city, 
and  swept  away  insurance  capital  and  every  form 
of  combustible  property  within  the  district  where 
it  raged.  The  Continental  had  been  transacting 
business  in  Chicago  for  seventeen  years,  was  thor- 
oughly well  known  and  appreciated  by  the  property 
owners  of  that  city,  and  its  business  there,  selected 
with  assiduous  care,  was  large  and  profitable.  It 
was  now  to  be  called  upon  to  pay  fire  losses 
amounting  to  nearly  one  and  three-quarter  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  The  manner  in  which  the  com- 
pany met  this  great  disaster  is  indicative  of  the 
decision  and  energy  of  its  Board  of  Directors,  and 
of  the  views  which  they  held  of  the  commercial 
sphere  and  functions  of  an  insurance  company. 
The  Chicago  fire  started  on  Sunday  evening,  Octo- 
ber 8th.  That  it  was  a  great  conflagration  was 
apparent  before  Monday  closed,  but  its  full  extent 
was  not  known  even  on  the  Wednesday  following. 
In  order  to  obtain  definite  and  reliable  information 
as  to  the  extent  of  the  company's  loss,  a  special 
agent  had  been  despatched  to  Chicago.     He  tele- 

16 


OF    NEW   YORK,    1853    "^^    ^9^5 

graphed  that  1 1,200,000  would  more  than  pay  it. 
The  officers  in  presenting  the  despatch  to  their 
Directors  asked  them  to  consider  the  loss  to  be  not 
less  than  11,500,000.  The  result  proved  that  the 
local  and  special  agents,  though  on  the  ground  (as 
was  the  common  experience  of  companies  involved 
in  that  calamity)  greatly  underestimated  the 
amount  of  loss.  The  regular  monthly  meeting  of 
the  Board  of  Directors  occurred  on  Thursday 
morning.  Information  to  the  latest  date  was  laid 
before  them.  1 1  was  obvious  to  them  that  the  cap- 
ital of  their  Company,  which  five  days  before  com- 
manded a  price  of  $300  per  share  in  the  New  York 
market,  was  still  sound  at  par,  but  that  the  security 
of  their  policyholders  was  materially  diminished. 
The  Directors  evidently  having  previously  deter- 
mined, each  for  himself,  the  action  properly  to 
be  taken,  met,  and  after  discussing  the  situation 
for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  unanimously  resolved  to 
double  the  capital  of  their  Company,  making  it 
one  million  dollars,  and  to  pay  the  additional  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  cash  and  at  once. 
The  courage  of  that  action  can  be  appreciated  only 
by  those  who  were  heavily  involved  in  that  loss. 
Not  knowing  what  effect  the  distrust  awakened 
by  the  failure  of  a  large  number  of  companies 
might  have  upon  the  stockholders  of  the  Conti- 
nental, but  firmly  resolved  to  secure  the  addi- 
tional half  million  of  capital,  the  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  of  Directors  present,  subscribed 
the  entire  amount  before  they  left  the  Directors' 
room.    The  confidence  of  the  Directors  in  their 

17 


THE    CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE    COMPANY 

officers,  shown  by  this  prompt  and  resolute 
action,  was  endorsed  by  the  stockholders  and  the 
public,  who  immediately  subscribed  to  the  new 
stock  11,090,400,  where  only  $500,000  could  be 
accepted. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Continental  Directors, 
January,  1872,  the  following  resolution  was 
unanimously  adopted: 

''Resolved  :  That  the  thanks  of  this  Board  are 
due  and  are  hereby  tendered  to  the  officers  of  The 
Continental  Insurance  Company  for  the  courage, 
skill,  and  good  management  with  which  they 
have  met  a  great  epoch  in  its  affairs,  in  success- 
fully providing  for  losses  by  a  single  fire  amount- 
ing to  three  times  its  original  capital,  and  in 
simultaneously  placing  it  in  a  condition  of  strength 
that  entitles  it  to  the  confidence  of  a  constituency 
already  twice  as  large  as  it  was  before  the  burning 
of  Chicago/' 

The  calamity  of  Boston,  in  November  of  the 
following  year,  just  a  year  and  a  month  and  a  day 
after  the  fire  at  Chicago,  inflicted  a  loss  of  over 
seven  hundred  thousand  dollars  on  the  Conti- 
nental. The  business  of  the  preceding  ten  months 
had  been  strangely  fruitful  of  losses,  and  the 
company  had  had  neither  time  nor  opportunity 
to  accumulate  any  considerable  amount  of  sur- 
plus. In  view  of  this  new  and  severe  demand 
upon  the  Company,  there  was  left  for  the  consid- 
eration of  the  Directors  the  option  of  reducing 
the  capital  to  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or  of 
submitting   to   an   assessment   of  four   hundred 

18 


GEORGE    T.    HOPE 

PR  ESI  DENT,    1  857-1  8815 


OF    NEW    YORK,    1853    "^^    ^9^5 

thousand  dollars.  The  feeling  of  distrust  of  in- 
surance stocks,  which  had  again  begun  to  be 
freely  expressed  in  the  community,  was  recog- 
nized, but  after  a  brief  consultation  the  Directors 
again  met  the  requirements  of  the  hour  by  accept- 
ing the  burden  of  assessment,  and,  before  leaving 
their  seats,  confirmed  their  resolution  by  sub- 
scribing for  the  entire  sum  required.  Again,  also, 
the  stockholders  and  the  New  York  capitalists 
sustained  the  action  of  the  Continental  Directors 
by  a  subscription  of  over  one  million,  where  only 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars  could  be  received. 

These  two  great  conflagrations,  bringing  the 
bankruptcy  of  one  hundred  companies,  and  the 
consequent  enormous  wastage  of  resources  in 
their  train,  could  not  fail  to  suggest  to  sound 
underwriters  that  the  prevailing  system  of  organi- 
zation of  insurance  companies  lacked  important 
elements  of  safety,  and  the  effect  of  the  Continen- 
tal's costly  but  triumphant  experience,  upon  the 
views  of  its  managers,  led  them  to  induce  the 
Directors  and  stockholders  of  the  Company  to 
submit  to  the  provisions  of  the  New  York  Surplus 
Law  (otherwise  known  as  the  Safety  Fund  Law), 
which  became  operative  upon  its  passage  in 
April,  1874. 

The  Safety  Fund  Law  restricts  the  dividends 
of  a  fire  insurance  company  to  seven  per  cent  upon 
its  capital  and  accumulated  funds,  until  these 
funds  equal  or  exceed  the  capital  stock,  when  all 
dividend  restrictions  are  removed.  Under  this 
law,  the  special  reserve  fund  is  held  for  the  pro- 

21 


THE   CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE    COMPANY 

tection  of  policyholders  not  involved  in  a  con- 
flagration which,  without  this  provision — this 
sheet  anchor  to  windward — would  exhaust  the 
entire  loss-paying  resources  of  the  Company  and 
drive  it  upon  the  shoals  of  bankruptcy.  This 
fund,  deposited  and  safeguarded  at  Albany,  im- 
mediately supplies  a  capital  that  enables  the 
Company  to  avoid  a  receivership,  with  its  ruinous 
charges  and  commissions,  and  its  vexatious  hin- 
drances, and  to  continue  business  without  an 
hour's  interruption  or  delay. 

At  the  time  the  Continental  submitted  to  the 
provisions  of  this  law,  it  was  a  matter  of  impor- 
tance, for  the  Company's  assets  amounted  to  but 
$2,606,235.00.  At  present,  with  the  large  surplus 
that  it  has  accumulated,  the  law  is  no  longer 
necessary  for  the  protection  of  its  policyholders, 
but  doubly/ safeguards  their  interests. 

One  other  characteristic  of  The  Continental 
Insurance  Company  deserves  notice.  In  1869  the 
officers  induced  the  Board  of  Directors  to  adopt 
a  system  which  amounts  to  a  guarantee  that  no 
misappropriation  of  any  of  the  assets  of  the  Com- 
pany can  take  place.  The  security  afforded  by 
this  plan  so  impressed  the  Hon.  Julius  L.  Clarke, 
Insurance  Commissioner  of  Massachusetts,  who 
incidentally  became  acquainted  with  it,  as  to  lead 
him  to  make  an  extended  reference  to  it  in  his 
annual  report  of  January  i,  1872,  of  which  the 
following  is  an  extract: 

''Under  its  operation,  a  special  committee  on 
assets,  consisting  of  three  members  of  the  Board 

22 


OF    NEW   YORK,    1853    "^^    ^9^5 

of  Directors,  are  required  to  make,  at  irregular 
intervals,  to  be  determined  by  themselves,  but  at 
least  as  often  as  once  in  each  month,  a  critical 
examination  of  any  part,  or  of  the  whole,  as  they 
may  elect,  of  the  assets  of  the  Company;  the  result 
of  such  examinations  to  be  reported  at  each 
regular  meeting  of  the  Board.  It  is  further  pro- 
vided that,  upon  its  appointment,  the  committee 
shall  divide  itself  into  three  classes,  so  that  its 
members  shall  act  for  one,  two  and  three  months 
respectively;  the  place  of  the  retiring  member  to 
be  filled  by  another  appointment  for  three  months 
at  each  regular  meeting  of  the  Board/' 

''This  is  the  plan  adopted  by  a  well-managed 
company;  the  certificates  of  monthly  examina- 
tions embodied  in  the  records  of  its  asset  com- 
mittee for  years  past  showing  that  this  duty  has 
been  faithfully  fulfilled.  If  other  companies  have 
adopted  similar  usage,  all  the  better.  Be  that  as 
it  may,  every  intelligent  financier  will  discover 
in  the  scheme  here  set  forth  a  development  of 
method  and  accountability  which,  wherever 
adopted,  should  scarcely  fail  to  secure  absolute 
safety  and  confidence." 

ON  July  27,  1885,  Mr.  George  T.  Hope  died 
at  his  residence  at  Bay  Ridge,  Long 
Island,  in  the  67th  year  of  his  age.  In 
the  twenty-eight  years  that  he  filled  the  office 
of  president  of  the  Company  its  assets  increased 
from  less  than  a  million  of  dollars  to  over  five 
millions,  and  its  surplus  rose  from  a  scant  one 

23 


THE    CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE    COMPANY 

hundred  thousand  dollars  to  a  million  and  a  half, 
but  of  this  increase  —  as  has  been  shown  — 
1900,000  had  been  contributed  by  the  stock- 
holders to  the  coffers  of  the  Company,  $500,000 
as  new  capital  and  $400,000  in  payment  of  an 
assessment  of  forty  per  cent  rendered  necessary 
by  the  losses  sustained  in  the  Chicago  and  Boston 
conflagrations. 

Mr.  Hope's  administration  extended  over  other 
trying  periods  in  the  history  of  the  Company, 
besides  those  incident  to  these  two  great  fires 
which  shook  the  very  foundations  of  the  fire  in- 
surance business  in  the  United  States.  It  covered 
the  four  years  of  the  Civil  War,  those  anxious  days 
and  nights  for  all  charged  with  the  care  and  con- 
duct of  important  business  enterprises;  and  the 
Continental  in  addition  had  peculiar  troubles  of 
its  own  in  the  Inland  Marine  Department  of  its 
business,  vexatious  legal  complications,  which 
future  presidents  of  the  Company  inherited  and 
courageously  battled  with  for  many  a  long  year 
before  they  were  brought  to  a  termination  under 
the  administration  of  Mr.  Moore. 

Mr.  Hiram  H.  Lamport  had  served  as  secretary 
of  the  Company  from  April  9,  1857,  to  July  12, 
1866,  when  he  was  made  vice-president,  and  in 
August,  1885,  he  succeeded  Mr.  Hope  in  the  office 
of  president,  but  on  account  of  ill  health  he  was 
obliged  to  relinquish  the  position  in  January,  1889. 
He  still  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-five,  con- 
tinues a  Director  of  the  Company. 


24 


HIRAM    H.    LAMPORT 

PRESIDENT,     1885-1889 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1 853    TO    I905 

THE  fourth  president  of  the  Continental, 
Mr.  Francis  C.  Moore,  became  connected 
with  the  Company  as  a  clerk  in  1869. 
In  March,  1881,  he  was  made  second  vice-presi- 
dent, and  on  the  17th  of  January,  1889,  was 
elected  to  the  position  marked  out  for  him  by 
Mr.  Hope  some  time  before  the  latter's  death. 
This  office  Mr.  Moore  retained  for  fourteen  years, 
and  in  his  conduct  of  it  proved  beyond  question 
Mr.  Hope's  competency  as  a  judge  of  character 
and  ability  by  the  selection  of  his  second  vice- 
president,  as  the  one  under  whose  direction  the 
Company  would  go  on,  to  use  his  own  expression, 
"without  a  jar.''  Mr.  Moore  demonstrated  his 
mastery  of  the  science  of  fire  underwriting,  and 
won  high  distinction,  not  only  by  the  conspicu- 
ously successful  management  of  the  affairs  of  his 
Company,  but  also  by  his  contributions  to  the 
literature  of  a  subject  of  highest  importance  to 
the  business  world,  for  without  insurance  against 
fire  the  wheels  of  commerce  would  not  long  re- 
volve. 

When  Mr.  Moore  assumed  the  direction  of  the 
Company  in  1889  its  assets  amounted  to  15,028,- 
344.69,  and  its  net  surplus  to  $1,226,691.66. 
Upon  his  relinquishment  of  his  office  in  1903  the 
Company  possessed  $12,957,841.15  of  gross  assets, 
a  net  surplus  of  $5,718,961.98,  and  an  organiza- 
tion and  an  esprit  de  corps  which  he  in  a  large 
measure  created,  of  a  value  to  the  Company  that 
cannot  be  estimated. 

Mr.   Moore's  books  and  pamphlets  on   "Fire 

27 


THE    CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE   COMPANY 

Insurance  and  How  to  Build/'  ''How  to  Build 
Fireproof  and  Slow-Burning/'  ''How  to  Build  a 
Home,"  "Unearned  Premium,"  "Waterworks  and 
Pipe  Distribution,"  and  "How  to  Build  a  Hotel," 
the  results  of  his  own  long  experience  as  a  fire 
underwriter,  are  recognized  as  authorities  of  the 
highest  practical  value,  and,  as  standard  text 
books  they  should  form  part  of  the  equipment  of 
every  fire  underwriter's  oifice. 

"The  mere  recapitulation,"  says  a  writer  in  the 
Post  Magazine  and  Insurance  Monitor,  of  London, 
England,  of  the  subjects  treated  in  "  Fire  Insur- 
ance and  How  to  Build"  "is  calculated  to  amaze 
even  the  seasoned  habitues  of  the  fire  insurance 
domain.  The  work  is  as  admirably  lucid  in  re- 
spect of  diction  as  it  is  invaluable  in  respect  of 
instructiveness.  Insurance  people  all  over  the 
world  are  under  deep  obligations  to  Mr.  Moore  for 
this  laborious  and  crowning  contribution  to  the 
literature  of  the  business.  It  will  readily  be 
acknowledged  that  the  author  stands  in  no  need 
of  introduction  to  European  insurance  circles." 

The  Standard  Universal  Schedule,  for  rating 
mercantile  risks,  prepared  by  a  committee  of 
which  Mr.  Moore  was  chairman,  is  "generally 
admitted  to  be  the  most  comprehensive  and 
thorough  schedule  ever  devised."  It  marked  a 
change  in  rate-making  in  the  United  States,  if  not 
in  the  whole  world,  and  elicited  a  chorus  of  com- 
mendations from  insurance  experts  here  and 
abroad.  One  of  the  most  appreciative  and  ably 
written  of  the  many  press  notices  of  it  that  ap- 

28 


FRANCIS C      MOORE 

PRESIDENT,    18S9-1903 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1 853    TO    I905 

peared  was  the  following,  in  ''The  Insurance 
News,"  of  Manchester,  England,  issue  of  July  i, 
1892: 

SCIENTIFIC   FIRE    UNDERWRITING 
IS    IT   FEASIBLE  ? 

"That  such  a  question  as  this  should  have  to  be 
put  after  two  centuries  of  practical  experience 
may  almost  appear  incredible.  Yet  in  sober 
truth  we  seem  to  have  got  very  little  past  the 
crude  and  uncertain  methods  which  characterized 
the  early  stages  of  fire  insurance  history.  We 
need  seek  no  further  illustration  of  this  assertion 
than  the  marvellous  results  which  have  been 
presented  by  the  modern  system  of  'tendering.' 
Speaking  generally  we  may  say  that  the  methods 
of  rating  now  in  vogue  are  purely  empirical. 
And  we  may  even  go  further  than  this,  and  assert, 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  that,  omitting  the 
sphere  which  is  technically  known  as  'first-class 
risks,'  five-sixths  of  all  the  remaining  business  is 
now  being  done  at  a  loss.  This,  it  is  true,  largely 
arises  from  the  intensity  of  competition,  but  it  is 
the  competition  of  ignorance.  No  underwriter, 
however  infatuated,  would  take  upon  his  books 
a  quantity  of  business  which  he  knew  before-hand 
would  prove  unprofitable.  But  in  actual  practice 
this  is  being  done  every  day.  What  we  want, 
therefore,  is  a  clearer  and  more  definite  classifica- 
tion; more  light,  more  knowledge,  against  which 
even  the  most  unscrupulous  would  hesitate  to 
sin.     In  other  words,  we  want  to  know  whether 

31 


THE    CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE   COMPANY 

fire  insurance  rating  can  be  placed  upon  a  mathe- 
matical and  scientific  basis.  No  genuine  and 
united  attempt  in  this  direction  has  yet  been 
made.  It  has  been  held  that  each  oifice  is  best 
consulting  its  own  interests  by  maintaining 
secrecy  as  to  its  experience  in  connection  with 
any  given  class  of  risk.  This,  we  maintain,  is  an 
enormous  fallacy,  and  one  that  has  done  untold 
mischief  to  the  cause  of  fire  insurance  as  a  whole. 
It  is,  as  we  have  said,  ignorance  which  is  pre- 
sumptuous, and  not  knowledge.  If  during  the 
last  ten  years  it  had  been  clearly  known  where  lay 
the  line  which  divided  profit  from  loss,  we  should 
scarcely  have  had  fire  insurance  reduced  to  the 
unsatisfactory,  if  not  even  perilous,  position  in 
which  it  is  found  to-day. 

"All  very  well,  it  may  be  said,  but  is  it  possible 
to  place  fire  business  upon  such  a  basis  as  that  ad- 
vocated ?  A  very  remarkable  and  clever  attempt 
in  this  direction  is  now  being  made  in  America, 
where  the  evils  and  irregularities  of  unscientific 
rating  are  even  more  conspicuous  than  in  Great 
Britain.  A  committee  consisting  of  four  mem- 
bers. President  Moore,  of  the  Continental;  Mr.  Sil- 
vey,  of  the  German  American',  Mr.  Babb,  of  the 
'Northern,  and  Mr.  E.  G.  Richards,  of  the  National 
of  Hartford,  have  gone  into  this  question  with  the 
most  minute  care  and  attention,  and  have  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  entitled  'Standard  Universal 
Schedule  for  Rating  Mercantile  Risks.'  The 
starting  point  is  the  experience  of  the  past  five 
years,  and  an  assumed  loss  ratio  of  55  per  cent. 

32 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1853    TO    I905 

of  the  proposed  premiums — a  state  of  things 
which  we  may  almost  look  upon  as  too  halcyon 
for  realization.  But  it  is  unnecessary  to  say  that 
this  preliminary  condition  of  55  per  cent,  of  loss 
in  no  way  affects  the  methods  which  it  is  proposed 
to  employ  in  discrimination  and  classification. 
It  is  in  these  latter  points  that  the  value  and 
excellence  of  this  attempt  are  conspicuous.  There 
are  first  of  all  laid  down  the  conditions  which  will 
constitute  a  'standard  city/  those  conditions 
having  reference  chiefly  to  the  extent  and  effi- 
ciency of  the  fire  appliances,  but  embracing  also 
a  variety  of  other  features,  such  as  the  width  of 
the  streets,  the  nature  of  the  paving,  good  build- 
ing laws,  no  outlying  exposures,  such  as  lumber 
districts,  and  a  previous  exemption  from  an 
abnormally  heavy  loss  ratio.  In  this  *  standard 
city'  there  is  next  assumed  a  *  standard  build- 
ing,' in  which  all  approved  methods  of  construc- 
tion and  arrangement  are  supposed  to  exist. 
Here  then  in  the  shape  of  this  standard  building 
in  a  standard  city  we  have  what  we  may  call  the 
base  line,  the  'normal'  condition  of  things  if 
we  may  use  our  own  familiar  term,  and  for  this 
a  'basis  rate'  of  5s.  per  cent,  is  fixed.  There  is 
then  a  series  of  provisions  for  deficiencies  in  the 
city  standard,  twenty-seven  in  number,  and  each 
of  these  involves  a  penalty  in  the  shape  of  an 
extra  rate,  greater  or  less,  according  to  the 
gravity  of  the  case.  We  thus  arrive  at  the  rate 
for  a  'standard  building'  in  any  city  whatever, 
an  enormous  advantage,  as  may  be  easily  seen. 

33 


THE   CONTINENTAL   INSURANCE   COMPANY 

In  like  manner  the  building  itself  is  dealt  with, 
and  deficiencies  from  its  standard  are  provided  for 
by  accumulated  rates  in  precisely  the  same  man- 
ner. Any  building — i.  e.  any  mercantile  build- 
ing— in  any  city,  is  thus  rated  on  strictly  scientific 
and  logical  principles,  the  elements  of  risk  being 
divided  into  two  main  branches,  those  arising 
from  the  city,  as  a  city,  and  those  from  the  build- 
ing, as  a  building.  But,  as  will  have  been  noticed, 
all  buildings  are  thus  far  rated  as  empty,  and  we 
have  now  another  elaborate  schedule,  under  the 
heading  of  'Charges  for  Occupancy,'  giving,  in 
alphabetical  succession,  a  list  of  about  three 
hundred  different  trades  and  tenantcies,  with  a 
rate  in  each  case  for  buildings  and  contents,  to  be 
added  to  the  rate  as  previously  ascertained  for  the 
building  in  its  unoccupied  state.  There  are 
various  other  provisions  expanding  or  modifying 
these  general  principles  to  meet  special  circum- 
stances, but  the  main  outline  of  the  scheme  will, 
we  trust,  be  sufficiently  clear  from  the  description 
we  have  already  given. 

"We  welcome  this  effort  with  the  utmost  pleas- 
ure. It  is  a  distinct  advance  upon  anything  of  the 
kind  we  have  yet  seen.  It  contains  the  true 
principles  of  scientific  fire  underwriting.  We  do 
not  offer  any  opinion  as  to  the  inadequacy  or 
otherwise  of  the  proposed  rates ;  at  this  stage  that  is 
a  very  small  matter.  Experience  will  speedily  cor- 
rect what  is  wrong  in  this  respect.  We  have  here 
for  the  first  time  in  a  practical  form,  a  genuine 
attempt  to  estimate  the  one  hitherto  intangible 

34 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1853   TO    I905 

factor  in  fire  insurance,  risk.  We  have  dealt 
with  this  fact  heretofore  by  a  priori  methods, 
the  present  is  an  effort  to  deal  with  it  a  posteriori. 
Years  ago  we  pointed  out  that  risk  itself  was  ca- 
pable of  being  divided  into  two  elements:  first, 
the  probabilities  of  fire;  second,  the  probabilities 
of  suppression.  The  first  embraces  all  features  of 
construction  and  arrangement,  the  second,  the  ad- 
equacy and  efficiency  of  extinguishing  appliances. 
We  can  never  have  sound  underwriting  until,  in  all 
cases,  the  relative  significance  of  these  two  factors 
is  carefully  and  accurately  adjusted.  Our  Ameri- 
can friends,  whether  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
have  based  their  whole  system  upon  the  recognition 
of  these  truths;  their  'standard  building'  is  where 
the  probabilities  of  fire  are  least,  while  their 
'standard  city'  is  where  the  probabilities  of  sup- 
pression are  greatest.  Magna  est  Veritas.  When 
old  Kepler  had  discovered  his  three  immortal  laws, 
he  expressed  himself  as  willing  to  wait  a  century 
for  their  recognition,  since  the  maker  of  the  uni- 
verse 'had  waited  six  thousand  years  for  an  ob- 
server.' Our  sphere  is  a  very  humble  one,  but 
there  is  truth  in  matters  small  as  well  as  in  matters 
great;  laws  in  commerce  as  well  as  in  science;  nay, 
commerce  is  science,  if  we  but  knew  it.  We  have 
had  enough  of  rule  of  thumb  in  fire  insurance,  and 
just  now  rule  of  thumb  has  brought  us  into  a  strait 
place.  Suppose  we  now  try  science.  The  efforts 
of  this  American  committee  are  deserving  of  every 
encouragement,  and  if  such  a  system  as  they  sug- 
gest could  be  perfected  and  adopted,  its  advan- 

35 


THE    CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE    COMPANY 

tages  would  be  enormous.  The  least  we  can  do 
is  to  urge  every  fire  manager  to  send  to  America 
for  a  copy  of  this  extremely  able  and  suggestive 
pamphlet." 

AT  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  held 
September  ii,  1902,  Mr.  Moore  an- 
nounced his  intention  to  retire  from  the 
presidency  of  the  Company  early  in  the  following 
year,  feeling — to  quote  from  the  minutes  of  that 
meeting — that  a  long  period  of  rest  was  necessary 
after  his  thirty-four  years  of  service  in  the  Com- 
pany. Messrs.  Orr,  Low  and  Babcock  expressed 
the  sentiments  of  the  Board  in  urging  the  President 
not  to  retire  and  sever  his  official  connection  with 
the  Company,  but  to  take  such  time  as  he  thought 
necessary  to  restore  him  to  a  condition  of  perfect 
health;  and,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Orr,  seconded  by 
Mr.  Babcock,  the  Executive  and  Salary  Committees 
were  jointly  made  a  Special  Committee  to  confer 
with  the  President  and  make  such  recommenda- 
tions to  the  full  Board  as  seemed  best.  To  the 
Board's  great  disappointment  the  Committee  was 
obliged  to  report  its  inability  to  induce  Mr.  Moore 
to  alter  his  resolution. 

At  the  Directors'  Meeting  of  January  15,  1903, 
Mr.  Moore  having  declined  a  re-election,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  previously  expressed  determination, 
Mr.  Henry  Evans,  who  had  enjoyed  a  quarter  of  a 
century  of  experience  in  fire  underwriting  under 
Mr.  Moore's  wise  guidance,  and  for  more  than  half 
that  period  had  served  as  vice-president  of  the 

36 


HENRY     EVANS 

PRESIDE  NT.     I  903- 


o     c     c   c-  c 

>  C         C       C  c    c 

c        etc 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1 853   TO    I905 

Company,  was  nominated  and  unanimously  elected 
to  fill  the  vacancy  thus  created. 

Mr.  Moore's  retirement  was  the  occasion  of  deep 
regret,  not  only  to  his  Board  of  Directors,  but — as 
the  columns  of  the  prominent  insurance  journals  of 
the  country  abundantly  testify — to  all  interested  in 
fire  underwriting.  On  January  28,  1903,  a  compli- 
mentary dinner  was  tendered  him  by  the  National 
Board  of  Fire  Underwriters  at  the  Waldorf-As- 
toria Hotel,  which  was  said  by  the  managers  of 
that  world-renowned  caravansary  to  have  been  the 
most  largely  attended  banquet  ever  given  to  a  pri- 
vate individual  within  its  walls. 

THE  number  of  directors  deemed  adequate 
by  the  promoters  of  our  various  banks, 
insurance,  and  trust  companies,  differs 
widely.  A  few  of  these  directorates  are  limited 
to  seven  members,  while  in  others  *'the  more  the 
merrier'*  appears  to  be  the  motto,  and  fifty  are 
not  thought  to  be  too  many.  The  forty-six 
directors  with  which  the  Continental  began  its 
career  were,  however,  found  to  be  a  superabund- 
ance, for  on  November  14,  1895,  the  number  was 
reduced  to  twenty-one,  by  vote  of  the  Board. 
This  action  of  the  Directors  was  approved  by 
the  stockholders,  December  12,  1895,  and  that 
number  of  gentlemen  now  constitutes  the  Board. 
Few  directors  have  ever  resigned  their  offices, 
but  death  has  occasioned  numerous  vacancies  in 
their  midst,  and  many  are  they  who  have  come 
and  gone  in  the  Company's  council  room  during 

39 


THE    CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE    COMPANY 

the  half  century  that  has  rolled  away.  Mr. 
Aurelius  B.  Hull  is  now  the  sole  survivor  of  the 
incorporators  of  the  Company. 

The  present  Oificers  and  Directors  of  the  Com- 
pany are  the  following: 

Officers:  Henry  Evans,  President;  Edward 
Lanning  and  George  E.  Kline,  Vice-Presidents; 
Joseph  E.  Lopez  and  Edward  L.  Ballard,  Secre- 
taries; Charles  R.  Tuttle  and  James  A.  Swinner- 
ton.  Assistant  Secretaries.  Mr.  R.  J.  Taylor  is 
the  General  Adjuster  and  has  been  with  the  Com- 
pany for  nearly  forty  years. 

directors 
William   L.  Andrews,      William  G.  Low, 
George  F.  Baker,  Richard  A.  McCurdy, 

Clarence  W.    Bowen,       William  J.  Matheson, 
John  Kerr  Branch,  Francis  C.  Moore, 

Henry   Evans,  Charles  A.  Moore, 

G.  Trowbridge  Hollister,  Alexander  E.  Orr, 
Aurelius  B.  Hull,  Frederick  P.  Olcott, 

George    E.    Kline,  Cyrus  Peck, 

Hiram    H.    Lamport,       William  A.  Read, 
Edward  Lanning,  Daniel  G.  Reid, 

John  L.  Riker. 

The  New  York  and  Chicago  offices  of  the  Com- 
pany have  a  clerical  force  of  two  hundred  and 
seventeen,  and  it  has  been  the  uniform  practice  of 
the  Company  to  promote  from  this  trained  body  of 
employees  men  to  fill  the  higher  and  official  posi- 
tions. All  of  the  present  officers  have  been  pro- 
moted from  the  ranks. 

40 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1 853    TO    I905 

OVER  thirty  years  of  exemption  from  great 
and  destructive  conflagrations  had  bred  a 
feeling  of  scepticism  as  to  their  possible 
recurrence.  The  constantly  increasing  number 
of  buildings  of  reputed  fireproof  construction,  and 
the  greater  efficiency  of  the  fire  departments  in 
most  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  country  seemed 
to  warrant  this  conclusion,  but  on  the  7th  of 
February,  1904,  there  came  a  rude  awakening  from 
this  fond  dream  of  security  in  the  Baltimore  fire, 
which  in  forty-eight  hours  consumed  about  thirty- 
five  million  dollars  worth  of  property,  and  entailed 
a  loss  upon  the  insurance  companies  of  approx- 
imately thirty  millions.  A  noteworthy  feature 
of  this  conflagration  was  the  full  insurance  carried 
by  the  property  owners,  over  eighty  per  cent,  of 
the  loss  being  covered  by  insurance.  Many  of  the 
local  companies  were  thrown  into  bankruptcy,  but 
fortunately  for  the  insured  only  a  few  of  the  out- 
side companies  transacting  business  in  Baltimore 
were  forced  into  liquidation.  The  Continental's 
losses  in  this  conflagration  (1925,000),  and  the 
ones  that  immediately  followed  it  at  Rochester, 
New  York,  and  Yazoo  City,  Mississippi,  amounted 
to  over  a  million  of  dollars;  nevertheless,  in  con- 
sequence of  its  large  and  widely  distributed  busi- 
ness, and  the  ample  surplus  accumulated  through 
conservative  management  in  previous  years,  the 
Company,  on  the  ist  of  January,  1905,  was  able 
to  exhibit  an  increase  in  both  its  gross  assets  and 
net  surplus,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  appended 
comparative  statements: 

41 


THE   CONTINENTAL   INSURANCE   COMPANY 

ANNUAL  STATEMENT,  JANUARY  I,   I904 
ASSETS 

Cash  on  deposit  and  in  office  ....  $808,503 .  53 
Loans  on  Bond  and  Mortgage  (on 

real  estate  worth  $66,000)   .  .  32,150.00 

Stocks  and  Bonds 11,288,515.00 

Real  Estate 1,1 13,000.00 

Premiums  in  course  of  collection  .  864,577.86 

Interest  and  Dividends  (accrued).  83,744.57 

Rents  accrued i ,686.67 

Total  Assets $14,192,177.63 

LIABILITIES 

Reserve  for  Insurance  in  force.  .  .  5,646,414.36 

Reserve  for  losses  in  process  of  ad- 
justment   464,893 .  23 

Reserve  for  commissions,   taxes, 

and  all  other  claims 217,441 .51 

Reserve  for  contingencies 300,000.00 

Cash  Capital i  ,000,000 .00 

Total  Liabilities 7,628,749. 10 

Net  Surplus 6,563,428. 53 

$14,192,177.63 

ANNUAL  STATEMENT,  JANUARY  I,  I905 

ASSETS 

Cash  on  hand  and  in  oifice $764,442 .  67 

Loans  on  Bond  and  Mortgage  (on 

real  estate  worth  $60,500) . . .  28,900 .  00 

Stocks  and  Bonds 1 1,674,865  .00 

Real  Estate 1,113,000.00 

Premiums  in  course  of  collection..  866,740 .  13 

Interest  and  Dividends  (accrued)  94,495.65 

Rents  accrued 709.87 

Total  Assets $14,543,153.32 

42 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1 853   TO    I905 
LIABILITIES 

Reserve  for  insurance  in  force. . .  $5,903,813 .33 

Reserve  for  losses  in  process  of  ad- 
justment   410,545 .05 

Reserve  for  commission,  taxes  and 

all  other  claims 172,133.41 

Reserve  for  contingencies 300,000.00 

Cash  Capital i  ,000,000 .00 

Total  Liabilities 7,786,491 .  79 

Net  Surplus 6,756,661 .  53 

114,543,153.32 

RESULT  OF  TWELVE  MONTHS*  BUSINESS 

Increase  Gross  Assets l350>975  69 

Increase  Net  Surplus 193,233 .00 

Increase  Reserve  for  Insurance  in 

force 257,398.97 

In  this  connection  the  following  table  of  great 
fires  in  the  United  States  is  of  interest.  It  shows 
the  location,  date  and  estimated  magnitude  of  the 
conflagrations  causing  losses  of  five  millions  of  dol- 
lars and  over  that  have  occurred  since  1835: 
New  York  City.. Dec.  16, 1835,  530  buildings  .  ...$15,000,000 
Charleston, S. C.Apr.  27, 1 838,   1,158  buildings  —  5,000,000 

New  York  City.  June  20,  1845,  300  buildings 6,000,000 

Pittsburgh,  Pa. .Apr.  10,  1845,  1,100  buildings. ..  10,000,000 

San  Francisco. .  .May  3, 185 1,  2,500  buildings 5,000,000 

Sacramento,Cal.Nov.  12, 1852,  general 10,000,000 

Charleston, S.C.Dec.  11, 186 1,  general 7,000,000 

Portland,  Me.. .  .July  4,  1866,   1,743  buildings  .  ..10,000,000 

Chicago,  Ills Oct.  8,  1871,  2,124  acres 168,000,000 

Boston,  Mass . .  .Nov.  9,  1872,  65  acres 75,000,000 

Seattle,  Wash.  ..June  6,  1889,  general 6,600,000 

Spokane,  Wash. .June  6,  1889,  general 5,000,000 

43 


THE    CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE   COMPANY 

Lynn,  Mass  . .  .Nov.  26,  1889,  factories,  &c $5,000,000 

Milwaukee,  Wis. Oct. 28,  1892,  230  buildings 5,000,000 

Hoboken,  N.  J..June30,  1900,  vessels  and  docks. .  5,000,000 

Jacksonville,  Fla. May  3,  1901,  130  blocks 10,000,000 

Paterson,  N.  J  .  ..Feb.  9,  1902,  400  buildings. .  . .  10,000,000 

Baltimore,  Md.  ..Feb.  7,  1904,  140  acres 35,000,000 

This  table  brings  into  prominence  the  fact  that 
of  all  the  cities  of  the  United  States,  Chicago  holds 
the  unenviable  pre-eminence  of  having  sustained 
a  loss  by  fire  of  nearly  one  hundred  million  dollars 
in  excess  of  that  resulting  from  any  other  single 
conflagration.  Boston  follows  next,  then  Balti- 
more, and,  lastly.  New  York. 

Our  neighbors  of  Canada  have  had  their  full 
share  of  disastrous  fires  during  the  past  twenty- 
five  years.  The  great  fires  in  Montreal,  Quebec, 
Ottawa,  Hull,  and  St.  Johns,  Newfoundland, 
alone  consumed  property  valued  at  forty-five 
millions  of  dollars.  This  insurance  loss  fell 
mostly  upon  foreign  companies,  for  relatively  few 
companies  in  the  United  States  venture  across 
the  border  with  their  insurance  policies. 

THE  Continental  Fire  Insurance  Company 
began  the  transaction  of  the  business  for 
which  it  was  created  in  the  basement  of 
6  Wall  Street,  but  shortly  migrated  to  14,  and 
in  1856  to  18  Wall  Street.  In  i860  it  ac- 
quired the  property  at  102  Broadway  and  i  Pine 
Street.  Number  100  Broadway  was  purchased  in 
1 87 1,  and  in  1892,  Number  104  was  added  to  the 

44 


CONTINENTAL    BUILDING 

100    BROADWAY,    NEW    YORK 

ERECTED    I  873 


OF    NEW   YORK,    1 853    TO    I905 

Company's  holdings,  which  gave  it  a  frontage  of 
sixty-two  feet  on  that  unique  block  in  lower 
Broadway  which  faces  the  open  ground  of  Trin- 
ity Church-yard,  and  enjoys  a  perpetual  ease- 
ment of  its  light  and  air.  This  entire  property 
cost  the  Company  about  $450,000,  and  was  sold 
November,  1892,  to  the  American  Surety  Co.  for 
11,050,000,  a  record  price  up  to  that  time  for 
Broadway  property. 

In  April,  1894,  the  Continental  removed  to  the 
commodious  oifices  it  now  occupies  in  the  fme 
thirteen-story  building  erected  under  the  careful 
supervision  of  the  then  Vice-President,  Mr.  Henry 
Evans,  at  Nos.  44-46-48  Cedar  Street;  a  section  of 
the  city  in  which  the  old-time  three  and  four- 
story  brick  warehouses  were  then  just  beginning 
to  disappear  before  the  towering  office  buildings 
of  modern  construction,  where  now  the  fire  insur- 
ance companies,  both  foreign  and  domestic,  most 
do  congregate.  The  Continental  also  owns  the 
building  occupied  in  part  by  its  Brooklyn  oifices 
at  the  corner  of  Court  and  Montague  Streets, 
one  of  the  most  prominent  business  locations  in  the 
City  of  Churches;  and  it  has  recently  purchased  a 
lot,  25  X  100  feet  in  dimensions,  at  No.  158  Monta- 
gue Street.  It  proposes  to  improve  this  property 
by  the  erection  of  a  four-story  office  building,  to 
which  its  Brooklyn  branch  offices  will  be  removed. 
This  change  is  contemplated  for  the  same  consid- 
erations that  influenced  the  Company's  removal 
in  New  York  from  Broadway  to  Cedar  Street,  to 
wit,  the  shifting  of  the  center  of  the  insurance 

47 


THE   CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE   COMPANY 

business,  and  the  increased  value  for  other  pur- 
poses of  the  property  vacated. 

THE  steady  financial  growth  of  the  Company 
during  the  first  half  century  of  its  existence 
is  exhibited  in  detail  in  the  Fifty-year  table 
which  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix.  The  An- 
nual Statement  for  January  i,  1906,  (the  fifty- 
third  issued  by  the  Company)  shows  an  additional 
gain  in  net  surplus  of  over  two  and  a  half  millions 
of  dollars,  and  in  net  assets  of  over  three  millions. 

In  the  valuation  of  its  real  estate,  stocks  and 
bonds,  the  management  of  the  Continental  has 
shown  unusual  conservatism.  For  example,  in  its 
statement  of  January  i,  1906,  the  actual  ''market 
value"  of  its  securities  alone  was  over  one  and 
one-half  million  dollars  in  excess  of  the  figures  at 
which  they  had  been  inventoried  in  making  up  the 
total  assets  of  the  Company. 

The  real  estate  could  undoubtedly  be  sold  for 
several  hundred  thousand  dollars  more  than  the 
stereotyped  valuation  at  which,  for  years  past,  it 
has  been  carried  on  the  books  of  the  Company,  and 
as  a  cap-sheaf,  the  sum  of  $300,000,  set  aside  and 
called  "reserve  for  contingencies,''  constitutes  an- 
other bulwark  against  losses  by  fire,  and  is  an 
extraordinary  precaution,  which  is  taken  by  few 
other  fire  insurance  companies  and  is  not  required 
by  law. 

It  must  not  be  overlooked  in  this  resume  that  an 
important  part  of  this  very  favorable  result  is  due 
to  the  care  and  management  of  the  Company's  in- 

48 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1853    TO    I905 

vestments  by  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Board, 
which  has  always  included  men  of  prominence  in 
the  city's  financial  affairs,  noted  in  the  community 
for  their  sagacity  and  for  the  possession  of  that 
business  sense  which,  experience  teaches,  is  almost 
as  rare  a  gift  as  that  of  poesy. 

IN  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1869  The  Continen- 
tal Insurance  Company  established  in  the  West 
a  Department  with  headquarters  at  Chicago. 
The  field  covered  at  that  time  was  the  States  of 
Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Min- 
nesota, Iowa,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  Kansas  and  the 
Dakotas.  In  1873  Kentucky  was  added,  and 
since  that  date  the  Department  has  gradually  ex- 
panded its  operations  until  at  the  present  time  it  is 
writing  insurance  in  practically  all  the  Western 
States,  including  Tennessee  and  the  States  of  the 
Pacific  Coast. 

It  was  soon  discovered  that  farmers  required 
credit  in  order  that  they  might  pay  their  insurance 
premiums  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  year's  har- 
vests, and  to  meet  this  necessity  the  Continental 
in  advance  of  any  other  company  decided  to  con- 
duct its  farm  business  upon  a  three  to  five  year 
note  installment  plan.  As  time  passed  on,  and  the 
farmers  became  more  prosperous  the  single  note 
plan  was  inaugurated  which  allowed  but  one  year's 
credit,  the  note  being  timed  to  fall  due  when  the  far- 
mer realizes  from  his  crops.  The  greater  part  of 
the  farm  insurance  business  of  the  Company  has 
been  conducted  upon  these  two  lines.    The  popu- 

49 


THE    CONTINENTAL   INSURANCE   COMPANY 

larity  it  acquired  by  this  liberal  action,  its  honor- 
able treatment  of  claimants  and  prompt  settle- 
ment of  losses,  and  its  strong  financial  position, 
have  resulted  in  its  present  large  and  growing  busi- 
ness throughout  the  farming  community.  The 
Continental  was  also  one  of  the  first  companies  to 
recognize  the  necessity  for  tornado  insurance  and 
in  1882  this  class  of  business  was  added  to  its  farm 
department. 

The  Western  Department  is  in  charge  of  Vice- 
President  Mr.  George  E.  Kline — whose  period  of 
service  with  the  Company  passed  the  quarter  cen- 
tury mark  in  November  1904,  and  Mr.  Charles  R. 
Tuttle,  who  in  the  year  1903  was  promoted  to  an 
assistant  secretary-ship  from  a  special  agency  in 
the  State  of  Colorado.  The  headquarters  of  the 
department  is  in  Chicago,  and  the  vaults  in  the 
Postal  Telegraph  Building  formerly  called  the 
Rialto  Building  in  that  city,  in  which  these  farmers' 
notes  are  filed  away  in  orderly  arrangement,  supply 
a  striking  object  lesson  of  the  magnitude,  in  the 
aggregate,  of  the  business  there  conducted — and 
the  vast  amount  of  detail  work  and  clerical  labor 
that  the  average  littleness  of  its  component  parts 
involves.  These  tiers  upon  tiers  of  boxes  contain 
two  hundred  thousand  farmers'  notes  ranging  in 
amount  from  five  dollars  to  one  thousand  dollars 
each.  None  of  the  installment  notes  of  the  Com- 
pany (over  $  1 ,200,000  face  value)  are  included  in 
the  assets  until  collected. 

Since  the  organization  of  its  Western  Depart- 
ment the  Company  has  paid  to  the  holders  of  its 

50 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1 853    TO    I905 

farm  policies  over  1 1 2,500,000  and  in  its  own  partic- 
ular sphere  it  has  unquestionably  been  an  import- 
ant factor  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  Great  West  dur- 
ing the  past  fifty  years.  The  security  afforded  by 
its  policies  of  insurance  has  enabled  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  agriculturists  to  obtain  loans  upon 
their  farms  or  to  secure  extensions  of  time  for  the 
payment  of  existing  mortgages  which  they  were  un- 
able to  meet  when  due,  and  the  western  farmer 
now  regards  a  Continental  policy  as  a  provision 
for  a  rainy  day,  equivalent  to  a  government  bond. 

IN  the  three  and  fifty  years  of  its  corporate  life 
the  Company  has  paid  losses  amounting  to 
over  Fifty-eight  Million  Dollars.  Its  business 
covers  sixty  States  and  Territories  of  the  Union, 
and  is  transacted  through  the  medium  of  agencies, 
which  at  the  last  report  numbered  seventy-one 
hundred.  It  maintains  a  force  of  fifty-nine  travel- 
ing representatives,  covering  all  the  States  in  which 
it  transacts  business,  and  is  thus  enabled  to  prompt- 
ly reach  any  policy  holder  who  has  a  claim  upon  it. 
Agents  in  the  following  States  are  under  the  direct 
supervision  of  the  home  office  at  New  York: 


Alabama 

Maine 

Ohio 

Arkansas 

Maryland 

Pennsylvania 

Connecticut 

Massachusetts 

Rhode  Island 

Delaware 

Mississippi 

South  Carolina 

Dist.  of  Columbia 

New  Hampshire 

Texas 

Florida 

New  Jersey 

Vermont 

Georgia 

New  York 

Virginia 

Louisiana 

North  Carolina 

West  Virginia 

THE  CONTINENTAL  INSURANCE  COMPANY 

Agents  in  the  following  States  are  under  the  su- 
pervision of  the  Western  Department,  Chicago: 


Arizona 

Kentucky 

Oklahoma 

California 

Michigan 

Oregon 

Colorado 

Minnesota 

South  Dakota 

Idaho 

Missouri 

Tennessee 

Illinois 

Montana 

Utah 

Indiana 

Nebraska 

Washington 

Indian  Territory 

Nevada 

Wisconsin 

Iowa 

New  Mexico 

Wyoming 

Kansas 

North  Dakota 

Through  these  agents  the  Company  in  1905  is- 
sued approximately  four  hundred  thousand  pol- 
icies, or,  to  quote  the  exact  figures  as  shown  by  the 
records,  393,953  policies. 

THIS  is,  in  brief,  the  story  of  The  Continen- 
tal Insurance  Company,  whose  stock  to- 
day has  a  higher  book  value  than  that  of 
any  other  company  in  the  United  States  having  a 
capital  of  a  million  dollars  or  more,  and  that,  in 
''Standing  by  Assets,''  ''Surplus  to  Policy- 
holders," "Premiums  on  Fire  Business,"  and 
"Gross  Risks  in  Force,"  ranks  with  the  strongest 
fire  insurance  companies  the  world  over. 

"The  Company,"  wrote  President  Hope  a  gene- 
ration ago,  "is  from  principle,  a  supporter  of 
schedule  rating,  of  wisely  discriminating  tariffs, 
and  of  uniform  charges  for  insurance;  believing 
that  underwriters  owe  it  to  the  country,  by  such 
means,  to  induce  property-owners  so  to  build  that 
property  shall  be  less  liable  to  destruction  by  fire, 

52 


OF   NEW   YORK,    1853    TO    I905 

and  that  thereby  the  immense  drain  upon  the 
resources  of  the  nation  by  the  burning  up  of 
earned  values,  may  be  diminished;  and  it  believes 
also,  that  only  by  such  discriminating  and  uni- 
form charges  can  the  companies  grow  strong  to 
meet  the  next  great  conflagration  and  its  suc- 
cessors. To  these  ends  the  Company  has  always 
co-operated  with  others  for  uniform  tariffs,  paid 
fire  departments,  better  water  supplies,  and  all 
that  tends  to  conservatism." 

These  are  still  the  watchwords  of  the  Con- 
tinental, and  by  the  wise,  able,  experienced  and 
progressive  management  of  its  affairs  by  Mr. 
Hope's  successors  in  the  presidency  of  the  Com- 
pany, through  days  when  the  sun  of  its  prosperity 
rose  high  in  the  heavens,  and  again  when  the 
smoke  from  burning  towns  and  cities  enveloped  it 
in  clouds  and  darkness,  it  has  kept  the  steady,  up- 
ward and  onward  tenor  of  its  way,  and  won  for 
itself  a  name  and  prestige  equalled  by  few  and 
surpassed  by  none  of  the  fire  insurance  corpora- 
tions of  this  or  any  other  country. 

IT  is  the  part  of  wisdom  and  prudence  for  those 
in  charge  of  the  affairs  of  any  institution,  to 
select  men  of  ability  on  the  staff  of  their  em- 
ployees and  train  and  fit  them  to  occupy  the  high 
and  responsible  positions  in  the  ranks  of  its 
officials  which  sooner  or  later  in  the  course  of 
time  become  vacant.  No  other  method  of  filling 
such  vacancies  is  productive  of  equally  satisfac- 
tory results.    This,  as  before  noted,  has  been  the 

53 


THE   CONTINENTAL    INSURANCE   COMPANY 

creed  and  practice  of  the  managers  of  the  Con- 
tinental and  in  consequence  it  has  always  been 
able  to  command  the  services  of  those  who  have 
grown  up  under  this  tutelage  and  who  have  thus 
become  fully  equipped  and  qualified  for  the  work 
assigned  them.  To  the  untiring  efforts  of  these 
officers  and  agents  and  their  devotion  to  the 
interests  of  the  Company,  the  commanding  posi- 
tion it  at  present  occupies  is  largely  due. 

FINIS 


CONTINENTAL    BUILDING 

158    MONTAGUE    STREET,    BROOKLYN 

ER  ECTED    I  906 


APPENDIX 


THE  CONTINENTAL  INSURANCE  COMPANY 

1853 — ^90^ 

YEAR 

PREMIUMS 

TOTAL 

DEC.  31 

COLLECTED 

LOSSES  PAID 

TOTAL  INCOME 

DISBURSEMENTS 

INCLUDING    DIVIDENDS 

1853 

$96,417.16 

$6,785.17 

$132,145.80 

$56,572.86 
145,982.89 
138,501.18 

1854 

125,682.11 

70,544.76 

160,164.02 

'In 

136,376.53 
159,503.68 

60,010.49 

179,257.03 

1856 

54,447-38 

203,777.45 

210,462.31 

'in 

183.090.95 

63,050.54 

225,858.94 
271,502.83 

148,666.72 

1858 

218,446.40 

43,020.94 

142,387.58 

1859 

265,085.14 

79,659.99 

321.052.38 

209,734.69 

i860 

296,402.21 

132,044.05 

359.357-57 

281,207.71 

1861 

275,640.40 

132,826.00 

342,267.95 

283,511.98 

1862 

297,075.94 

136,946.75 
74,116.78 

370,680.95 

285,616.37 

1863 

33J.204.15 

420,936.43 

247,643.62 

1864 

417,353-91 

187,785.44 

541.766.76 

456,041.02 

1865 

495,046.90 

I97.153-I2 
334,484.17 

606,793.85 

518,045.33 

1866 

615,704.06 

733.296.45 

691,150.94 

!86? 

678,947.68 
683,660.65 

315,800.64 

801,085.10 

681,443-47 

195,163.41 

822,222.54 

599,239.36 

1869 

752,122.08 
879,445.22 

210,426.13 

934,300.05 

667,958.21 

1870 

258,040.30 

1,032,352.02 

862,032.59 

1871 

1,351.361.95 

1,419,101.08 

1,511,567-75 

2,205,415.57 

1872 

1.549.J  53-35 

1,747,387.05 

1,657,489.33 

2,443,640.03 

1873 

1,633,904.35 

977,840.61 

1.740,274.96 
1,801,571.28 

1.651,304.59 

1874 

1,677,695.32 

701,999.58 
733,428.14 

.1,432.718.55 

'§75 

1.523,845.67 

1.677.155.99 

1,448,526.15 

1876 

1,402,809.95 
1,465,578.95 

664,891.91 

1.559.918.94 

1,353.711.41 

,877 
1878 

695,413.08 

1,624.109.16 

1,413.116.90 

1,493,012.42 

675,506.88 

1.664.418.01 

1,446,892.23 

1,514,069.14 

825,953.68 

1,688.656.17 

1,582,758.22 

1,759,601.08 

801,703.79 

1,946,192.73 

1,627,142.19 

1881 

2,041,234.42 

1 ,097,400.08 

2,228,404.61 

2,019,022.63 

1882 

2,153,291.14 

1,164.291.70 

2.375.239-89 
2,828,042.61 

2,157,731.25 

1883 

2,601,744.86 

1,474,802.72 

2,613.755-73 

1884 

2,704,920.16 

1,706,735.73 

2,934,722.53 

2,906,576.51 

1885 

3,159,636.36 

1.945,025-78 
1,754,868.65 

3,388,642.70 

3,360,593.23 

1886 

2,976,114.58 

3.232.525.35 

3,111,401.31 

'III 

2,417,081.15 

1,557,501-43 

2.642,950.28 

2,739,784.82 

1888 

2,245,145.43 

1,245,697.41 

2,473,939.05 

2,305,322.59 

1889 

2,203,985.66 

1,287.039.76 

2,439.448.42 

2,333,981.32 

1890 

2,303,080.92 

1,225,157.27 

2,660,543.80 

2,335,047.88 

1891 

2,409,268.25 

1,422.638.37 

2,592,604.60 

1892 

2,712,105.37 

1.531,242.13 

2,935,703.01 

2,794,362.89 
3,052,743.98 

1893 

2,954,422.87 

1,780,555-72 

3.228,004.03 

1894 

3,197,722.03 

1.767,268.02 

3,467,991.97 

3,103,796.41 

1895 

3,421,484.48 

1,830,789.06 

3.740.744.59 

3,232,101.11 

1896 

3,/i45,828.40 
3,648,085.13 
3,729,768.35 

1,683.362.71 

3,760,603.90 

3,126,551.58 

% 

1.714.641.47 

3,964,952.44 

3.263.023.26 

1,902,824.34 

4,068,796.21 

3.658.137.26 

1899 

3.876,078.89 

2,274.159.68 

4,281,188.76 

4,017,449.93 

1900 

4,294,530.98 
4,921,884.93 

2,220,299.31 

4,667,620.36 

4,044,922.58 

1901 

2.648,853.% 

5,320,622.99 

4,722,522.46 

1902 

5,403,061.54 

2,686,323.80 

5.850.237.97 

4,842,578.93 

Total 

191,098,713.25 

$49,717,010.83 

$100,368,910.45 

$91,565,436.93 

50  years 

THE  CONTINENTAL  INSURANCE  COMPANY 

1853 ^902 

YEAR 

UNEARNED 

TOTAL  LIABILITIES 

NET   SURPLUS 

r>r>  crikji  it  1  k/i  c 

NOT  INCLUDING 

TOTAL  ASSETS 

WITH  SCRIP  AND 

DEC.  31 

rKbiWlUMb 

SCRIP  ANDCAPITAL 

CAPITALDEDUCTED 

1853 

15,560.00 

1575.572.94 

1854 

457-50 

595.547-07 
635.249.68 
628,859.85 
706,887.25 

1855 

4,904.68 

1856 

14.548.78 

1857 
1858 

11,709-5' 

104,124.1  I 

835.227.59 

$128,236.06 

.859 

$106,115.28 

137.041-52 

946,572.73 

115,629.95 

i860 

133,996.00 

163,463.89 

1.024,752.28 

98,459.16 

1861 

123,829.74 

143,231.02 

1,071.518.26 

110,041.04 

1862 

i33'323-i6 

160,901.46 

1,171.212.78 

127,405.16 

1863 

149,041.87 

197.634-72 
248.752.34 

1,345.386.92 

166,592.04 

1864 

188.725.16 

1,423,680.98 

153.097.83 
147,088.03 

1865 

213,348.74 

332,909.73 

1,532.887.84 

1866 

265,122.31 

379,099.53 
381,992.92 

1,668,136.57 

233.899.94 
358,459.87 

1867 
1868 

288,552.76 

1,814,590.31 

314,046.67 

447, 1  54.67 
529,173.78 

2,066,854.10 

523,519.43 

1869 

387,976.24 

2,339,122.50 
2.538.037-74 

671,526.72 

1870 

491,405.18 

667,740.30 

647.203.44 

1871 

706,271.68 

1,456,181.36 

§2,509,526.27 

53.344-9' 

1872 

801,175.27 

1.231,093.71 

12,284,251.97 
2.255,937.08 

53.158.26 

1873 

921,926.76 

1,117,963.17 
1,198,634.93 

137,973.91 

1874 

981,229.39 

2,606,235.97 

366,143.41 

1875 

951,427.42 

1,189,152.1  I 

2,845,165.64 

600,221.53 

1876 

930,107.84 

1,196,069.94 

3,040,085.07 

785,290.13 
899,436.03 

'^77 

983,069.21 
1,060,384.21 

1,207,432.28 

3.173.933.31 

1878 

1,289,349.47 

3.327.771-74 
3,478,188.76 

965,514.27 
1,028,155.28 

1879 

1,132,518.32 

1,372,869.48 
1,682,583.64 

1880 

*  1, 346, 195.69 

3,938.719.41 

1,176,206.77 
1,327,419.81 

1881 

*  1, 458,827.07 

1,800,484.70 

4,207,205.51 

1882 

*i. 524,123. 54 

1,892,668.81 

4,450,534.50 

1,496,705.69 
1,617,782.28 

•g§3 

*  1. 775,820.69 

2,206,144.73 

4,867,942.01 

'^4 

*  1, 953,694. 10 

2,403,280.10 

1,938,501.92 

1.505.523.82 

1885 

*2,265,427.88 

2.818,599.14 

5,177,478.99 
5,239,981.28 

1,340,422.85 

1886 

*2,383,8oo.53 

2,865.124.35 

1,364,645.93 

1887 

2,585,904.05 

2,954,625.42 
2,801,653.03 

4,875,623.03 

917.237.61 

1888 

2,501,884.39 

5,028,344.69 

1,226,691.66 

1889 

2,470,343.24 

2,746,070.02 

5.217,773.91 
5.587,948.84 

1,471.703.89 

1890 

2,501,365.84 

2,985,328.79 

1.602,620.05 

1891 

2,636,775.30 

3,161,023.47 

5,806,784.71 

1,645,761.24 
1,785,864.96 

1892 

3,008,612.00 

3. 594.3 « 5-77 

6,380,180.73 

1893 

3,204,755.03 

3,856,575.95 

6,433.  •7» -33 

1.576.595.38 

1894 

3,405,407.79 

3,943,639.46 

6,754,908.72 

1,811,269.26 

1895 

3,521,726.96 

4,191,020,12 

7,216,828.25 

2,025,808.13 

1896 

3,523,299.59 

4,212,128.37 

8, 582!  207^68 

2,564,218.76 

•?97 

3.666,749.49 

4,464,212.20 

3,117.995.48 

1898 

3,762,919.29 

4,597,879.29 

9.077,114.17 

3.479,234.88 

1899 

3  ,968,336.70 

4,774,665.72 

9,809.660.83 
10,638,271.47 

4,034,995.11 

1900 

4,272,117.52 

5,127,7^.17 
5,697,683.69 

4,510,539.30 

1901 

4,806,903.60 

1 1,599,01 1. 81 

4,901,328.12 

1902 

5,320,070.68 

6,243,168.74 

12.957,841.15 

5.718,961-98 

§Ca 
*In 

pital  increased  to  $i,ck 

)0,000. 

:ludes  Unearned  Prem 

iums  on  Marine  Business 

[1872. 

y  stockholders,  Dec. 

tim 

pairment  of  $400,000,  i 

n  Capital,  resulting  from 

Joston  Fire,  met  b 

THE  CONTINENTAL  INSURANCE  COMPANY 

SUPPLEMENTARY  TABLE 
1903—1905 

YEAR 
DEC.  31 

PREMIUMS 
COLLECTED 

LOSSES  PAID 

TOTAL  INCOME 

TOTAL 
DISBURSEMENTS 

INCLUDING    DIVIDENDS 

1903 
1904 
1905 

$5,820,799.23 
5,906,807.17 
5.934,613.72 

$2,680,112.31 
3,678,  ^{68.70 
2,663,444- '4 

$6,287,805.23 
6,443,442.08 
6,505,703.72 

$5,117,991.14 
6,265,035.56 
5,205,687.16 

Total 

$17,662,220.12 

$9,021,925.15 

$19,236,951.03 

$16,588,713.86 

YEAR 
DEC. 31 

UNEARNED 
PREMIUMS 

TOTAL  LIABILITIES 

NOT     INCLUDING 
SCRIP  AND  CAPITAL 

TOTAL  ASSETS 

NET    SURPLUS 

WITH   SCRIP  AND 

CAPITALDEDUCTED 

1903 
1904 
1905 

$5,646,414-36 
5,903,813.33 

6.  >  57.738.23 

$6,628,749.10 

6,786,49179 
6,960,276.70 

$14,192,177.63 
14,543. '53-32 
16,384,501.83 

$6,563,428.53 
6,756,661.53 
8,424225.13 

ANNUAL    STATEMEI 

JANUARY  I,   1906 
ASSETS 

Cash  on  deposit  and  in  office 

Loans  on    Bond  and  Mortgage  (on 

real  estate  worth  $39,500) 

Stocks  and  Bonds 

Real  Estate 

sJT 

$1,118,043.52 

16,350.00 

13,099,465.00 

1,150,000.00 

906,924.77 

93,718.54 

Premiums  in  course  of  collection . . 

Interest,     Dividends    and     Rents 

accrued 

Total   Assets 

LIABILITIES 

Reserve  for  unearned  premiums  on 
policies  in  force 

Reserve  for  losses  in  process  of  ad- 
justment  

Reserve  for    Commissions,  Taxes, 
and  all  other  claims 

$16,384,501.83 

16,157738.23 
328,209.17 

174,329.30 

300,000.00 

1 ,000,000.00 

7,960,276.70 
8,424,225.13 

$16,384,501.83 

BUSINESS 

$1,841,348.51 
1,667,563.60 

253.924.90 

Reserve  for  contingencies 

Cash   Capital 

Total  Liabilities 

Net  Surplus 

RESULT  OF   TWELVE    MONTHS 

Increase  Gross  Assets 

Increase  Net   Surplus 

Increase   Reserve  for   Insurance  in 
force  

RECORD  SHOWING  NUMBER  OF  FIRES  AND  THEIR  CAUSES  IN  CON- 
NECTION WITH  CLAIMS  PAID  BY  THE  CONTINENTAL  INSURANCE 
COMPANY     DURING     I905    AND   FROM      1899   TO    I905    INCLUSIVE 


1909 


PER  CENT. 
OF  TOTAL 


1899—1905 


PER  CENT. 
OF  TOTAL 


Unknown  

Outside  Causes,  Exposures,  etc 

Lightning  : 

Live  Stock 

Building,  etc 

Total  Lightning 

Incendiary  : 

Internal  by  Assured 

External  by  Tramps,  etc 

Total  Incendiary 

Heating: 

Defective  Flues 

Stoves  

Gas  Stoves  (previous  to  1904  included 

under  Stoves) 

Fire  Places,  Open  Grates 

Steam 

Gasolene  Stoves 

Kerosene  Oil  Stoves 

Hot  Air  Furnaces 

Burning  out  soot  in  chimney 

Stove  Pipes,  defective 

''        "       through  walls,  roofs,  &c.. . 

Dry  Kilns 

"    Rooms    

Laundries 

Water  Backs,  Explosions 

Smoke  Houses,  private  ...    

public  pork.. 

Ovens 

Boiler 

Boiling  Grease 

Fumigating 

Burning   of    vaults,    Smead    (W.    C.) 

system  

Wood  Box 

Total  Heating 

Vacancy  : 

Ordinary 

Temporary 

Total  Vacancy 

CARRIED  FORWARD 


1098 


83 
672 


755 


100 

111 
416 


588 
522 

120 

176 
21 

'43 
80 

'3' 
96 

55 

15 

7 

3 


2091 


4.63 
11.72 

.86 
7.16 


8.02 


1.0^ 
3.3^ 


4-45 


6.27 
5.56 

1.28 

1.88 

.23 

1.40 
1.03 

.16 
.07 
.03 

.08 
.01 

.26 

-.11 

.06 


22.29 


3651 
8211 


711 
4240 


495 » 


759 
2376 


3'35 

3978 
3311 

166 

1058 
184 
807 
559 
749 
47^ 
428 
112 
6q 
8h 

II 

14 

23 

116 

M: 

61 


12907 


68 


4803 


32923 


RECORD  SHOWING  NUMBER  OF  FIRES  AND  THEIR  CAUSES  IN  CON- 
NECTION WITH  CLAIMS  PAID  BY  THE  CONTINENTAL  INSURANCE 
COMPANY      DURING    I9O5    AND     FROM     1899    TO   I9O5     INCLUSIVE 


CAUSE 


brought  forward 
Carelessness  : 

Adults 

Children 

Drunkenness 

Matches 

Plumbers,  Mechanics,  etc 

Cigarette  or  Cigar  Stub . . . 

Total  Carelessness 

Lighting  : 

Candle 

Gas  jets  in  contact  with  curtains 

Lights  in  show  windows 

Kerosene 

Electric 

Bams 

Leaking  Gas  Pipes 

Gasolene  Gas  Machines 

Lamp  Shades 

Total  Lighting 

Sparks : 

Mill  Chimneys 

Forges  and  Foundry  Furnaces 

From  Cupola 

Locomotives,  Steam  Vessels,  &c 

On  roofs  from  Chimneys 

From  Forest  Fires 

Threshing  Machines 

Total  Sparks 

Ashes 

Naphtha,  Gasolene,  Benzine,  &c 

Fireworks 

Illuminations,       Wakes,       Christmas 

Trees,  &c 

Spontaneous  Combustion 

Explosions 

Sawdust  Spittoons 

Rats  and  Mice 

Pickers 

Steam  Dryers  .  . ;. 

Friction 

Natural  Gas 

Sunlight  through  Glass 

General  Conflagration  

Coffee  Roaster 

Moving  Picture  Machine 

Slaking  Lime 

TOTAL  NUMBER  OF  FIRES 


1905 


4803 

347 

85 

1272 
79 

2035 


16 

II 
46 
30 

1301 

37 


276 

7 
2 

392 

61 
68 
53 

26 
271 

22 

6 

116 

5 
2 

58 

12 

2 

144 


PER  CENT. 
OF  TOTAL 


3.69 
.91 

2.68 


21.69 

.92 
4.09 

•«7 
4.70 
3.07 

.12 

•49 
.30 


13.86 
•39 


•74 

2.95 

.07 

.02 

4.17 

.65 

•73 
.56 

.27 

2.90 

.23 

.06 

1.24 

.05 

.02 

.62 

.12 

.02 

1.54 

.02 

.O! 


1899—1905 


32923 

3036 

1041 

29 

6262 

54  • 
11161 


473 
2536 

178 
3110 

340 
119 
70 


8603 

248 
9 
3 

490 

"539 
20 


2326 

340 
306 

422 

218 

1578 

196 

48 

724 

43 

4 

325 

99 

22 

990 

4 

2 
I 


PER  CENT. 
OF  TOTAL 


5.03 

••73 

.05 

•41 
18.50 

•78 
4.21 

5.16 
2.83 
.1 1 
.56 
.19 
.12 

14.25 

.41 
.01 
.01 
.81 
2.56 
.03 
.02 

T85 

.56 
.50 
.70 

.36 
2.62 

:^ 

1.20 
.07 
.01 

:n 

.04 
1.64 

.01 


9380 


60335 


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